Day 10: They’re Going to Love Me!

I just got finished presenting at the Rob Booker Live event in Houston, TX. What a great time and as always, the presenters made me laugh while at the same time allowing me to see their trading and learn from them. Awesome time. Thanks to Rob Booker, Oanda, Cantor Exchange, and my friend Justin at Forest Park FX. What an amazing network of resources to have access to! If you need the services of any of these guys, let me know and I can get you in touch.

What the heck does that have to do with trading? They are all going to love me? Who the heck cares right?

I’m letting you into the back door of my mind where I keep the stuff I didn’t want to talk about. This was a big motivation during the last experiment, as well as through out the process. I was trying to prove something…

Fast forward for a minute with me. The first question I ask any new trader I come in contact is “why”? There are so many other ways in the world to make money that you can be successful at in much less time with many fewer keyboards broken. Why trading? What are you looking for? Some can answer it. Some can’t. Some don’t have a clue what I’m talking about.

So take a minute and answer this question for yourself right now. Because the answer will lead you to all the answers of why you aren’t profitable. I promise.

Why did you choose trading?

I hear the same stuff over and over. “I want to make more money. I want to give back to charities. I want to spend more time with my family. I want to spend more time on the beach.” Those are the usual answers.

If that were the case, you would already be doing it..

Let that sink in

While it all sounds good, if that was really the case, there are a million ways you could accomplish those things. Trust me. Like I said, I could shut this all down and go run another business today and get to every one of those things ssooo much faster than what it’s taken me through trading. How do I know? Because if I told you that today you could go be a trash man and accomplish all of those things, you wouldn’t do it. It’s more selfish (which isn’t always wrong) and you have different motives.

I did. I wanted to be somebody.

If someone would have told me that I could do all of that stuff by starting a honey wagon company, I would say no. But those are some of the best margin businesses in the world and can grow and be taken over for big money very quickly. Why wouldn’t I just do something like that? Because I wasn’t ready.

The same way you aren’t ready to trade.

You, like me, probably want to prove something through your trading so you have stopped looking at it like the spreadsheet it really is. What are your margins? Oh, your losing money so you have no margins? Your not running a business that you can work, you are spending money on a hobby. Even if you are net profitable one dollar at the end of the month, you have a business. If you you draw down your account, you are searching for something to be easier than what you are doing now.

I wanted to prove something. That I wasn’t the guy who everyone thought I was. That I was better and successful and stuff. I wanted people to think highly of me. The dirty secret was they already did, the ones that mattered anyway, and trading was never going to do anything to change my or anyone’s perspective of me.

Price moves up and down, it doesn’t validate or invalidate you as a person or as a professional. It just moves up and down. You can’t be right, you can’t be smart. You can only learn one little piece about how it works and use that to your advantage.

Let it go today. All the stuff that needs to be proven right, or wrong, by trading. Just find a way to let price move up or down, and you will be more successful. Protect your capital. If price is moving against you, don’t let it. It’s that easy. Nobody will look at you any differently if you win or lose that trade. In fact, you will respect yourself a hell of a lot more at the end when you took control and didn’t let the bully take your money.

I guess in short, don’t think that price moving up or down has any bearing on you. It’s just price. Work hard. Run a business that is at least $1 net profitable every month and you can grow from there.

Let EVERYTHING ELSE GO

Because that everything else is what’s killing you in trading. I promise.

If you need help with this, let me know. I’m kind of an expert at getting this toxic crap out of my system. shonn@shonncampbell.com